Arsenal: 4 talking points from 1-0 Tottenham defeat

3. Ben White is Arsenal’s Man of the Match

Let’s look at the positives here. It’s a really easy one to pick out, too.

White, on his first Arsenal start, looked just about as solid as you’d want from a £50m signing. Or from a centre-back in general. Every aspect of his game was collected and tidy, this all despite training for just four days.

Reading the game aerially there was some smart positioning and when he was faced with runners he commanded his zones brilliantly, ushering them into less dangerous areas where the midfielders and forward could retreat back into the block.

What won’t have gone unnoticed was his carries out from the back. Heavily scouted by Arteta and co, this trait was one of the key reasons behind pursuing his signature and there were a few delightful examples of that skill on show.

Receiving the ball from deep, his ability to move with pace up towards the halfway line with composed technical ability opens up new angles for passes that other centre-backs in the side can’t manage. Holding, for example, is incapable of doing so and relies on close range distribution while the speedier White showed this off effortlessly.

It was the overall manner with which he got about the pitch that satisfied the most. Everything was supremely calm and, dare we say, made to look easy.

Early days, of course, but early positive signs too.